Adventures in Assembly

Coming home from work Thursday evening, I drove up our block to find several of the men in the neighborhood gathered around the open hood of  van belonging to one of the neighbor's daughters, who earlier in the day had needed to borrow my jumper cables as her vehicle would not start.  Beyond the gaggle of men and vehicles was a large brown truck.  As in UPS, stopped in front of our house.  A set of boxes was being delivered.  Yay!  My desk had arrived.

Stacks and stacks of pieces got unpacked from these boxes...along with piles of hardware and a thick instruction book.  I like putting together furniture and have done it many times.  My muffin tins always come in handy for all the cam locks, screws, etc.

However, starting a project like this at 9:00 PM on a weeknight was not my best choice.  After two hours and putting the same piece in wrong twice and having to take the desk apart twice, my assistants and I quit at a pretty good stopping point.

Unfortunately, I needed help with the rest of the assembly and the two men of the house left on Friday so nothing else has been done.

So much remains to be attached yet!  Hopefully when Nick returns today he can help me get the rest of this together.  In the meantime I will be putting on hinges, doorknobs and plastic drawers so all those pieces will be ready to go.  I can't say I think much of the instruction manual.  Like most manuals, the pictures are small and dark and there is a lot of 'splaining without step by step photos.  Even the website they directed me to does not have any assembly photos that might be enlarged and studied.  The hard part apparently is leveling the platform for the air lift, which has you using pieces of cardboard and foam from the boxes and extra tools and a second person to assist.  They offer help by phone but better pictures would really be an advantage.  Maybe there is a suggestion box on the website...

Look how large the opening is for the machine.  I could buy a really big one now!  Any suggestions?